6 tips for organizing the perfect pantry

Janine Adams has seen a lot of pantries. As a certified professional organizer and the founder of Peace of Mind Organizing, she has been helping people declutter and organize their homes since 2005. Below, Adams shares her top tips for organizing the perfect pantry—and keeping it that way.

1. Empty your pantry, tossing expired and unwanted items. The first step to organizing a pantry—like any other space—is to take stock of what you own and declutter, says Adams. She suggests taking everything out of the pantry and immediately tossing any items that are expired or that you simply didn’t like. “Think about the items as they are coming out. Are there items you didn’t enjoy? A new kind of breakfast cereal that you only ate once? Even if it’s not expired, that’s a candidate to toss,” she says.

2. Sort the rest into categories. “Usually what we do is put like things together,” Adams says. “But in a pantry, you may group differently. You may have all the ingredients for a particular recipe, for example.” She recommends creating “kits” of things you commonly use together, such as ingredients for chili or items for your kids’ school lunches.

3. Prioritize the items you use the most. Once the pantry is empty, refill it, starting with the items you use most often. Adams says these should be stored at eye level and in the easiest spots to reach. As for that rarely used ice cream maker or fondue pot taking up valuable space on the shelf, “either let go of it or relocate it,” she says.

4. Use containers and labels. Adams loves using plastic containers to store like items, such as individually wrapped protein bars, and she labels the containers or shelves so that every category has a home. “If you run out, you know where you are going to put it,” she says. “This also helps people find the thing and also put it back, which gets more important when you don’t live alone.”

5. Think twice about buying in bulk. After your pantry is in tip-top shape, Adams cautions against buying too much at one time, even if the price is right. “Think about where you are going to store items before you actually buy them,” she counsels. “Maybe it’s more economical to buy smaller quantities because you end up throwing things away because they’ve expired.”

6. Check expiration dates regularly. Finally, Adams recommends rechecking expiration dates every six to 12 months. “And instead of just noting in your head that it’s expired, actually throw it away,” she says. A pantry “needs to be maintained.”